amaotonovel Chapter 3225 The Shadow of Faraines (22)
Chapter 3225 The Shadow of Faraines (22)
Chapter 3225: The Shadow of Faraines (Twenty-two)
Batman and Schiller entered the bottom level of the cabin. There was almost no light here, but there seemed to be no deep divers, so Schiller turned on the flashlight without hesitation.
Under the light of the flashlight, he found that the ship should have been built by humans, but seemed to have sunk to the bottom of the sea many years ago. The wooden structure was badly corroded, but it could be said that it had not fallen apart. There must be some mysterious power protecting it.
The cargo was placed at the bottom of the cabin. Some boxes were corroded and broken, revealing their true appearance. The cargo here was roughly divided into two parts, one was spices and the other was ore.
Batman picked up a little ore powder and said, "This should be a cargo ship from the Age of Exploration. It may be from the Spanish Royal Fleet, but the exact age is hard to determine."
Schiller's judgment was similar to his. Just from the appearance of these ships, it can be seen that they are not modern products. Judging from the corrosion and damage to the hulls, they are also very old.
What really puzzled Schiller was that if the divers wanted to go ashore, they didn't need to sail a boat, which was why the three boats seemed particularly strange.
Although the ship and the Deep One arrived at the same time, they may not have the same purpose. If the Deep One is the product of the combination of old Sirtek's conspiracy and the Joker's setting, then could these three ships be related to the church?
If the church found a way to summon these three long-sunk cargo ships, why did they do it and what secrets were on board?
Schiller told Batman his guess, and Batman said: "Old Sirtek thinks he can plot against the church, but maybe he is just a pawn of the church. We have to hurry, or we may run out of time."
At this moment, Schiller suddenly heard a clear sound coming from the other end of the cabin.
He instantly turned off the flashlight and hid behind some barrels with Batman.
The sound of footsteps that followed made the two realize that there were other invaders on the ship, and these were not the footsteps of the Deep Diver.
The two of them exchanged glances and immediately understood each other's thoughts. They lowered their bodies and reduced their breathing rates as much as possible. Schiller silently put on the night vision goggles.
They were in the front corner of the cabin. From Schiller's perspective, he could see a corner of the stairs leading upstairs. In the night vision goggles, a human figure flashed by and instantly went up the stairs.
After the human left, Schiller and Batman came to where he was walking as fast as possible.
Because the floor is badly corroded, the wood surface is loose, and there is some slippery algae attached to it, it is easy to leave footprints.
Batman activated his reconnaissance skill, his dexterity was 20>15, the check was successful, and he told his findings.
"A human male, estimated to be around 1 meters tall, not very strong, but well-proportioned and well-balanced."
"Do you think there are outsiders coming to the village?" Schiller asked.
"It's hard to say now. Maybe someone has been hiding in the village and just showed up." Batman's eyes flashed with a cold light, and he said, "He should not be a good person. No matter what he wants to do, he can't succeed."
"I'll lead the way, let's go." Schiller took the pistol in his hand, put on the night vision goggles, and without much nonsense, he and Batman went up the stairs one after another.
"Aren't you going to listen to my judgment of him?"
Schiller looked back at him, then he remembered that he was still using X-ray vision, but he still said, "I thought your statement that he was not a good person was your judgment."
"Then you underestimate yourself." Batman said after a brief pause.
"What do you have in mind?"
"He's not panicking at all." Batman said, "This means that he may have night vision equipment like you, which means he is well prepared. It also means that he has anticipated the situation here."
"What do you mean? The Deep One?"
"It's more likely that it's the situation on the ship." Batman reached out and touched the wall of the stairwell and said, "From his movement trajectory, we can see that he went straight to the stairs after coming up from the door on the other side. He is very familiar with the terrain here. It is possible that this is not his first time here."
Schiller frowned. In fact, the three ships had been here for some time. If someone had really made preparations in advance, they would have come here at the first moment and would not have waited until now.
"And if someone breaks in now, it means he may have come in and out many times." Schiller asked, "What do you think he is here for?"
Batman was silent for longer this time, as if he was trying to comprehend what he was seeing in his hallucination, and then he said, "He was looking for something, and he didn't find it before, and now he's looking again."
"Okay, let's say what you said is true, but why can't he find it?"
Schiller isn't testing Batman, it's just interesting to see him trying to find useful information in his hallucinations, like watching someone panning for gold in shit.
"The ship is huge and the terrain is complex, so it's normal that he can't find it." Batman said, "It's obvious that this is not a place to stay for long. He can't stay here forever. If he can't find it once, he will have to come more times."
The two of them went up the stairs and soon saw footprints at the stairs again. This time the footprints were a bit messy, and the other party seemed to have lingered at the stairs for a while before leaving.
Schiller also found footprints of the Deep Diver nearby, which means that the other party might also be waiting for the Deep Diver to leave.
This is actually good news, which means that the opponent does not have the ability to confront the Deep Diver head-on. As long as he does not have superpowers, he is not dangerous.
This floor seemed to be the crew's bedroom. The other party only stayed here for a short while before going upstairs.
Batman wanted to chase him, but Schiller stopped him and said, "Let's look for it here."
"What are you looking for?"
"I don't know either." Schiller took a deep breath and said, "My intuition tells me that there may be clues here. Let's look for them."
Batman didn't object, so the two began searching here.
This floor is larger than the one downstairs, and the crew's bedrooms are arranged in a herringbone pattern. A main road is divided diagonally into many small paths on both sides, and the crew's rooms are on both sides of the path.
The two of them, one on the left and one on the right, began to check from both sides at a very fast speed.
Both of them were very fast at searching for evidence. They could roughly determine which clues were useful at a glance. Schiller checked room by room, but most of the rooms were corroded beyond recognition and contained nothing.
Some bedrooms are better preserved, probably because their doors are closed, and you can roughly see the shape of the beds.
When searching the eleventh bedroom, Schiller made a surprising discovery - under the upper bed board in this bedroom, Schiller saw a familiar name - "Pike".
Pike's name was carved crookedly on the bed board with a knife, but there was a line of words above it that read "It's coming."
Schiller took out Pique's diary. Although the engraving and handwriting were somewhat different, it could be seen from the way some letters were written that the handwriting in both places came from the same person, probably the sailor Pique.
Wait a minute, Schiller turned to the last few pages of the diary as quickly as possible, and after comparing the handwriting on it, he found that there was a problem with the ending of the story recorded in the diary.
Although the handwriting was basically the same and some superficial details were very similar, after careful observation, Schiller found that the writing habits were slightly different, and the handwriting at the back seemed to be forged.
In other words, the ending of safe return recorded in the diary may be false.
Yes, the three ships they are on now have all sunk, and the sailor Pique should not have escaped.
But if the ship he was on had sunk, how did his diary end up there?
Batman came in at this time. Schiller handed him the diary and expressed his doubts. Batman thought for a moment and said, "Do you know any shipwreck salvage companies?"
Schiller looked at him, and Batman continued, "There is a type of company that specializes in salvaging shipwrecks in various seas. The salvaged hull fragments and cargo samples have a certain economic value and can be sold to interested private collectors and museums."
"Judging from the size of the fleet during the Age of Exploration, it is impossible that there were only three ships. If the entire fleet was destroyed, there should be other shipwrecks in the same area."
"You mean other shipwrecks were salvaged? Then why weren't these three?"
"The salvage company is not doing charity." Batman explained, "They only salvage the more valuable goods. The better preserved the goods are, the higher their value will be. There are not many types of goods that can be kept intact, such as porcelain, gold, silver, etc. At the very least, they should be things with literary and historical value."
"In order to ensure that what they salvage is valuable, they usually conduct exploratory salvage first to determine the value of the cargo in a certain area. If they find that the cargo on the ship is of the right type, they will conduct large-scale salvage. If it is not suitable, they will give up."
Schiller understood a little bit. He said, "The things on the ship are obviously not what they want. The spices have long been destroyed and the minerals have long been corroded, so they did not salvage the ship."
"True, but that doesn't mean that a ship in the same fleet with a more valuable cargo wasn't salvaged, and the diary could have been found on that ship."
Schiller thought about it. What Batman said made sense. The fleets in the Age of Discovery were all very large, especially in Spain's most glorious era. A fleet might have dozens of ships, and a sailor did not work on one ship until his death.
When they dock for supplies, there will be personnel transfers. They may work on this ship the day before, and go to another ship after the next departure. Peake may die here, but he may not leave his diary here.
If he had left the diary on a ship with more valuable cargo, it might have been salvaged by a shipwreck salvage company and seen by the light of day.
Although the Age of Discovery is not very far away from the present, this kind of classic book with well-preserved text still has certain historical value.
After it was salvaged by the shipwreck company, it was probably sold to someone, then found by British looters and loaded onto a ship bound for the British Museum.
It happened that Jeff had been a sailor on this ship. In order to pay off his gambling debts, he stole these valuable books, and this thing fell into his hands.
Schiller wondered, if this was how the sailor Pique's diary came into Jeff's hands, then what about "Water God Ketayat"? Could it also have come from this ship?
Schiller thought this was possible because the disaster that befell Pique's fleet might have been caused by someone using the spell from the book "Ketaiat".
That way, everything makes sense.